"A lawyer should be an all-rounded personality"

Speaking about the standard of law students in the country today, (Retd.) Justice B.N. Srikrishna said, "The ones who have come to me for internships and law clerkships have got a good standard. The National Law Schools have done their job."

He is also known to be a linguist. "It just interests me. It must be some sort of wiring in my brain. I speak all the five languages of the south, Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, I studied Bengali, the Kazi of Bombay taught me Urdu, then I studied Russian at one time, and I am dabbling with Japanese, though I do not have much time now."

"A lawyer should be an all-rounded personality. Otherwise his thinking will be in a slot. That is why a classical-liberal education always helps to be a lawyer."

I do not think it is impossible to make time. I was at the peak of my profession and yet I did my LL.M examination. I used to finish my work at 10:00 -- 10:30 and study from 11.00 to 2:00 a.m. and then I did my M.A. in Sanskrit when I was in my forties and now I am hoping to clear the Japanese examination."

Is that motivation lacking in today's generation, Vidya Raja asked and he said, "They want to do it but their energies are channelised into different forms. Maybe because of my upbringing I can only think of such things."

When asked how his wife copes with his busy schedule, he said, "That is a million dollar question that you must ask her." He also said that it was because of his busy schedule that his wife was able to move ahead and study herself. He spoke of her achievements with much pride.

(Retd.) Justice Srikrishna has two daughters. The elder daughter is a consultant with the King's College Hospital in London and the younger daughter is a lawyer. "My elder daughter is a very good debater and I suggested to her that she become a lawyer. However, she took up medicine and is doing very well. Then I suggested to the younger one to become a lawyer and she did all kinds of things and suddenly one day, realised that she is wasting her time and decided to pursue law. And today she has a very good practice in Bombay. She did good for herself."

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